Sword and shield. (Clinton, Miss.) 1885-1888, 1887-01-29

/ wears agU an EngtiShnan by the name OF
Neville had sold his wagon there, and gone
on up the country; but suppose his hunter
inStinctha cot the better Of him.
Good jumped at the idea, for he was long
ing to have a go at the elephants, and So to
speak the TRUTH did l, for it went againstmy
conscience to let such herd as that escape
without having pull at them.
'All right, my heartieS, said |. II think
we want little recreation. And now let's
turn in. for we ought to be off by dawn, and
then perhaps we may catch them feeding,
before they move on"
The others agreed, and we proceeded to
make preparations. Good took off his clothes
shook them, put his eyeglass and false teeth
into his trousers pocket, and folding them
all ND neatly, placed them out of the dew
under a corner of his macintosh sheet. Sir
! Henry and / contented ourselves with
rougher arrangements, and were soon curled
up in our blankets and dropping OFF into
dreamless sleep that rewards the traveller.
Going, going, go What was that?
Suddenly from the direction OF the water
came a sound Of violent scuffiing, and next
instant there broke upon our ears success
sion Of the most awful roars. There was no
mistaking what they came from; only a
lion could make such a noise as that We
all jumped and looked toward the water in
the direction of which we saw a confused
mass, yellow and black in color, staggering
and struggling toward us. We seized our
rifles, and slipping on our veldtschoons
(shoes made of untanned hide), ran out OF
the scherm toward it. BY this time 1t had
fallen, and was rolling over and over on the
ground, and by the time we reached it 1t
struggled no longer but was quite still.
And this was what it was. On the grass
there lay a sable antelope bull-the most
beautiful Of all the African antelOpeS-
quite dead, and transfixed by its great curved
horns was-a magnificent black-maned lion,
also dead. What had happened evidently
was this. The sable antelope had come
down to drink at the pool where the lion
no doubt the same we had heard-had been
lying in wait. While the antelope was
drinking the lion had sprung upon him, but
was received upon the sharp curved horns
and transfixed once saw the same thing
happen before. The lion, unable to free
himself, had torn and bitten at the back and
neck of the bull, which, maddened with fear
and pain had rushed on till it dropped dead.
AS soon as we had sufficiently examined
the dead beasts we called the Kafirs, and be-
tween us managed to drag their carcasses up
/ to the scherm. Then we went in and laid
down, to wake no more till dawn.
With the first light we were up and max
ing ready for the fray. We took with us
the three eight-5ore rifles, good supply OF
ammunition, and our large water-bottles,
filed with weak, cold tea, which have al
ways found the best stuff to shoot on. After
swallowing little breakfast we started, Um'
bopa, Khiva, and Ventvogel accompanying
us. The other Kafirs were left with the in
structions TO skin the lion and the sable an
telope, and cut up the latter.
We had no difficulty in finding the broad
elephant trail, which Ventvogel, after ex-
animation, pronounced to have been made
by between twenty and thirty elephants,
most of them full-grown bulls. But the
herd had moved on some way during the
night and it was nine o'clock, and already
very hot, before, from the broken trees,
bruised leaves and bark, and smoking dung,
Ue knew we could not be far on them.